There was a juvenile Ruff at Engine Pool today, favouring the mudflats near the reed islands but flying short distances when disturbed - an area that I'd least expect a wader to frequent given the level of disturbance there, but according to locals two waders had been present in this particular spot for at least the past week, and I'm told there was a Ruff report on Birdguides from the lakes in the last few days. Although grateful to have seen today's bird (my 135th species at Earlswood), I feel dead gutted and incompetent to have probably missed two birds. In my defence I've not been able to spend much time birding since getting another job last week, and so have mainly been checking Engine Pool from the dam (opposite end) and concentrating on Windmill. Since this is an important record, being only the fourth Earlswood occurrence that I'm aware of, I'd like to document it as best as I can for my book, so if anyone has any further details please email me. I'd particularly like to hear from the birder who put the report on Birdguides. Dave and Jackie, please see my reply to your comment in previous post.
Matt
P.S. The Barnacle Goose and female Mandarin Duck reappeared at Windmill Pool today.
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2 comments:
Matt- are you aware of a pied wagtial rost or pre-roost at the lakes, because i did get down last sat night, and was amazed to have 50 odd Pied wagtails drop in on the engine pool 'island'.
The flock was still increasing as we left as more birds dropped in, but almost impossible to count.
If you know somone who is subscribed to the bird news on birdguides, you could ask them to have a look back through the records to find the date the ruff was reported
sorry i couldnt have been more specific.
MB
Thanks Craig, I think Pied Wagtails roost on one of the reed islands, although have never seen quite that many - will have to check.
Brian Stretch kindly checked Birdguides for me, but could only find my report. I think they must've subsequently deleted the other report, like they did with a Greenshank I once reported. I did also check the Ruff species page soon after your text, as that shows the 10 most recent reports too.
Matt
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